i love black girls

Words – Nick Melin

Photographs – Andrew Gough

To the casual observer it was clear that something  was going to go down. If it wasn’t for the heads up, I too may have felt that ta anytime, a bunch of ‘US president mask wearing bandits” would jump out of an olive Kombi van parked across the road and wreak havoc. There were those checking their watches, some fiddling with their cameras, and others plodding with wandering eyes looking guilty as sin.

One balding middle aged man wearing a Melbourne Victory scarf felt particularly out of the loop. ‘Is it Archie, Is Archie Thompson?’ ‘No’ my accomplice replied. ‘This is the Media Launch for the fashion event ‘Spirit of the Black Dress.’ The event that showcases some of Australia’s most talented young designers.
The concept launched last year at the Spring Fashion Festival and will be one of the highlights of the 2010 L’Oreal Fashion Festival.” The balding gentleman soon disappeared into the city landscape via the street donut stall where he brought a couple of ‘them creamy ones.’

At 10:05 the 10 girls suddenly appeared under Flinders St station in black trench coats. ‘They’re here’ yelled a photographer crossing the street. Not since Lara Bingle’s bullshit scandal broke has as many photographers sprouted as one in such a frenzy. The girls then removed their coats and confidently strutted down the stairs and in single file, cat walked across the street in a display that had school kids running from everywhere, tram drivers confused and police ultimately disempowered.

For the next half an hours The Spirit models posed for shots on each corner of the intersection and ended in fed squared where they were joined by all the designers. Pretty impressive.

Six hours later, travelling home on the 86, I picked up the MX on the seat next to me. Not surprisingly on the front page was the ten Spirit of the Black Dresses. Admittedly I was a little pissed and rang up our fashion editor to ask ‘who the fuck rang Fairfax’ She didn’t answer. With mixed emotions I turned the MX around to read a feature on Archie Thompson and suddenly felt the urge for some creamy donuts.